Google Goes After .lol and .docs Domains

Sounds like pretty soon, you’ll be able to find out if you can go to a website with .lol as a domain and take yourself seriously.

Google has gone on a shopping spree for domain names, applying for over 50 new domains from ICANN, which handles the creation and distribution of top-level domains like .com, .org, and the like. Google’s new acquisitions range from the obvious (.google, .docs) to the silly (.lol). Ultimately, the new domains, if used by Google, would represent a way for the company to better organize and package their products and media offerings to the general public.

A perfect example would be the .youtube domain, which would conceivably make finding channels and videos much easier. Think hilariouscatvideo.youtube instead of youtube.com/watch?(insert string of numbers and letters), and you’ll get a sense of the point of these purchases.

Those applications didn’t come cheap, either. Each one costs $185,000 in application fees, putting Google’s bill into the millions (not that that means much to the tech giant). It’s unclear what the rest of the 50 plus domains are, but we should find out on June 13th, when ICANN releases all of the applications they have received, both from Google and other sources.